Korg Forums

For your use and pleasure:

Bank of 107 Programs for the OASYS AL-1 Virtual Analogue Synthesizer.

http://www.knect.ie/OASYS.html

And see the first sound set (KN_AL-1.rar)

Actually – there are probably only about 30 distinct sounds in this batch – each with several variations. Usually the variations follow a path of exploring that sound, where every time I made sufficient changes to warrant considering it a new program, I’d save it to the archive.

These sounds are all based on the AL-1 sounds provided in my previous bank UG106_1 (see sound set 2 on the same page). However, while that bank contained programs for various OASYS synth engines, these are just AL-1 programs. Also, I have spend considerable time tidying up these programs – correcting the output amp levels, removing unused effects and so on so that they use minimum resources (Thanks Dan for pointing out these corrections in the original sound set).

These programs are mostly inspired by the classic polysynths of the 70’s and 80’s. Hence they are mostly old-school thick, luscious polysynth sounds. Many of them have a lot of Reverb on them which I know will annoy some – but it’s easy to knock that off to hear the sound without reverb. Also – many of these sounds use Unison mode, sometimes up to 8 or even 16 note unison – so they can hog OASYS resources. Just check the unison mode to check it out.

All of the programs with ‘Vintage’ in their name were inspired by the microKorg which has a similar function to LFO vary the phase of two waves in a double wave. This gives a rich sound but in a very vintage way (not dissimilar to divide-down string machines). Check out the oscillator page of those sounds to see what’s going on. As the Vintage program set proceeds, they get thicker and more luscious; but with far fewer unison voices than the earlier polysynth and pad sounds. Hence the very rich ‘Tomita’ and ‘Mask’ polysynths are derived from the Vintage sound set yet sound equally rich if not richer than the heavily unisoned earlier polysynth sound. I‘d like to acknowledge Daz for offering synth programming advice in devising the Vintage, Mask and Tomita sounds. Certainly this ‘Vintage’ style of sound reveals the true capabilities and character of AL-1.

Note that many of these sounds were created to work only over part of the keyboard range. The CS80, CS80 Bass and Unisynth sounds (with up to 64 oscillators per note) sound gigantic only in the lower octaves, with medium velocity, played mono. The final two sounds (Equinoxe 1 and 2) are very new, and are crude attempts at VCS3 type sounds. Move the Vector Joystick for those. I intend to develop a set of LFO Modulation sounds on the AL-1 and MS20EX based on the VCS3 over the coming weeks and months and these last two sounds are a crude, first attempt at controlling LFO rate, depth and oscillator pitch from the same joystick movement. But there's a lot more work to do on these two sounds...watch this space for those.

Overall, these sounds are quite plain – but that’s what I need as good programming starting points in individual works. Many of these sounds are devised for several ‘in development' large instrumental ‘pseudo-symphonic style’ works I’m currently working on – hence their richness (and the extent of reverb which I use to create a big sound environment when improvising/sketching). Please use these programs any way you wish - they are now out there, royalty free, public domain. I’d just ask that if you use any in works artistic or commercial that you acknowledge their source.

The programs install by default into User Bank G. Nothing else is stored in the PCG file but be sure to back up your OASYS before loading this bank.

Kevin

Thanks very much Kevin. Appreciate your generocity and hard work putting these together and look forward to trying them out.

Will let you know when I've had time, hopefully over the weekend

Thanks again

Tim

Hi Ken! I enjoyed your previous sounds. Very much looking forward to hearing your latest ones! Thanx for sharing!

Thanks so much for sharing these Kevin! You really have got the essence and quality out of AL-1 - wonderful stuff.

Not only do they sound amazing, they are great learning references - I've already had some 'ah, that's how it's done' moments

However, you are to blame for me spending the last hour playing Mask over and over and over and over and over and over... with a stupid grin on my face - kind of like this:-

Is the extension "rar" correct? Shouldn't that be "pcg"? Do I have to convert this into pcg first?

Charlie - the rar extension is like .zip (just different compression utility format). The .pcg is inside.

Thank you very much, Kevin! I have downloaded and will try today night or tomorrow.

Thank You Kevin,
I will download the sounds and play them this night.
Maybe some more of us, who create sounds should share them in this community. Would be a pleasure.

best regards
SoulBe

My pleasure. As said - these for general use. I’m not looking for feedback on them per say so please do not feel under any obligation to comment on them (and as I’ve said before you’re entitled to hate them and say that too – I can take it I’ve a thick hide!!).

I agree it'd be nice if we shared more sounds - but I also totally understand when people are not in a position to release sounds , where perhaps their livelihood depends on them; and we're entitled not to feel obliged to share sounds too – the sweat and tears in making new sounds or plain wanting to maintain uniqueness of sound are all valid reasons not to feel like you have to give everything away.

These sounds are not quite up to professional-release standard, though I'm quite happy with a number of them. I'm very happy with the Mask and Tomita pads, the CS80 and Unisynth unison sounds. The CS800-5 pad is very smooth and that took a _lot_ of tweaking to get to that state (and is inspired by the silky-smooth aftertouch response of the CS80 and velvet-smooth JD800 pads). I know I'll get great mileage out of the simpler, more grungy Vintage sounds - I think these are great and really show the AL-'1s capabilities on 70's style synth type sounds that can't be reproduced on many other VAs (though the microKorg is great at these too).

Kevin.

hmpf - could it be mac's dont understand rar?

I don´t know, but I´ve extracted the file. How can I send it to you? Send me your emailadress over pm?

regards
SoulBe

Charlie wrote:hmpf - could it be mac's dont understand rar?

Macs understand RAR, see UnRarX.

Thanks a lot Kevin for sharing your sounds, I will try them out as soon as possible.

Hi Kevin!
Just made it through your AL1-Collection. Lot's of Vintage - and even more reverb (you must love long reverb times)!
Some sounds have been real ear-catchers for me. Loved the OBXs sounds, the chorus sounds and some very nice pads. But my favourite ones are the AL1-origins - together with the VJS. VERY COOL!!
Thanx a lot for sharing.

PS: just a short warning - the output levels of some sounds are quite above the average of this collection and some of the bass sounds will not only blow your mind but also your speakers away. So I suggest to watch the output level ...

Hi Charlie -

Thanks for the feedback. Glad some of them are useful. I hear you re. the reverb - I tend to lash it on individual programs - I hate playing synth sounds without reverb, though I remove it completely in compositions and of course use/rebuild Reverb(s) carefully (despite what it might seem with these reverb-drenched programs). So sorry for not taking the time to reduce the reverb in many of the programs.

Thanks also for the pointers on the sound levels - there's always a lot to learn in that department.

Re. the bass sounds, of course the UnisonSynth and CS80 Programs have dozens of detuned oscillators per note so the intention there was to make AL-1 'gargantuan'. As mentioned in the description notes - these are recommended to be played in mono at medium volume on the lower half of the keyboard, and there's quite good velocity sensing on those programs. I'm very impressed with the AL-1 in unison mode, though such vast sounds haven't found their way into any of my compositions (yet!).

Glad you like the 'Origin' named sounds. Actually, I want to do a lot more with these. They were inspired by the Juno106 which has the capacity to sound either gigantic and delicate (depending on the application) because of one feature (generally regarded as a slight weakness) - the fact that it has DCO's as distinct from analogue VCO's. The Juno106's DCO's, in being both excellent sounding and very stable, work extremely well along side its VCF when ringing/oscillating at high Q values. By playing / altering the cutoff frequency and keyboard tracking you can set the filter to oscillate at any desired pitch and pitch scaling, and combining with the stable DCO, gives an awesome palette of harmonic-overtone type timbres / textures. You can achieve stunning Fender-Rhodes type piano sounds (admittedly only usable over part of the keyboard - but still - they are just beautiful sounds and utterly 'un-analogue synth' sounding); while applying just a hint of envelope level on the VCF with a slow attack, fast decay and positive sustain, coupled to some subtle white-noise and Chorus effect produces truly epic choral-type evolving textures even bigger than those in the AL-1 set provided. And with LFO applied – either very fast or very slow, applied with varying intensities to the oscillators and filter cutoff produces a plethora of unusual but attractive and usable textures similar to the three AL-1 'Origin' programs.

So when I made the AL-1 Origin sounds (and my PolySixEX programs with ‘Red’ in their title (not at my OASYS now and can’t remember their names)) I was trying to apply the same principles I learnt at the Juno106.

But I must say – the AL-1 and PolysixEX do not respond quite as well as the Juno106 in creating these textures. I’m not sure why that is. I suspect it may be something to do with the specific characteristics of the Juno106 rather than it being 'better' per-say; while trying to make a different synth engine (AL-1/PolysixEX) sound like another (the Juno) rarely works. But the Juno VCF (as distinct from having a digital filter) might be important; and the Juno Chorus effect might also be a factor - Roland are masters of the 'Chorus' effect (though they seem to have abandoned that these days). Admittedly I need to spend more time at this type of sound design on the OASYS, but I feel also that having the fader controls on the Juno makes the sound-sculpting experience more instantaneous (indeed I’m amazed to listen back to some of my pieces form the early 90’s where I can hear myself playing the filter faders in realtime to control the pitch it rings at at high Q values - a skill I'd be rusty at today!). I can also say that the types of sounds I'm talking about are not achievable on a pure analog synth such as an original Polysix or a Prophet, for example (I've tried without success). These sounds may be unique to the Juno106 because of its hybrid DCO/VCF archicture - and only time will tell if the AL-1 engine will yield the required subtlety.

Anyway, the AL-1 Origin sounds are a first attempt to merge oscillator with filter resonance, and while I’m quite happy with them, need to find more time to explore AL-1's capability in this regard.

The 'Vintage' capabilities of the AL-1 by using LFO-phasing of double-oscillators are also extensive - there's a huge amount could be done there, and in combination with OASYS Chorus effects perhaps even to strive towards Vintage String Machine sounds.


Cheers,
Kevin.